Getting the Facts
Straight: A Viewer's Guide to PBS's Evolution

Our Web Site:
www.reviewevolution.org

The controversy over Darwin's
theory of evolution has never been more intense. The American people--and
especially America's students--deserve to know what the fuss is all
about. They deserve to know what the evidence shows, what scientists
really think, and why--after all these years--there is still widespread
opposition to Darwinian evolution.

American public television
can and should be used to educate people about this important controversy.
The seven-part Evolution series, produced for public television by
Clear Blue Sky Productions and the wgbh/nova
Science Unit, could have been an important contribution in this regard.
But Evolution is a work of advocacy, an advertisement not just for
Darwinism, but for some of its more extreme manifestations. It distorts
the biological evidence, mischaracterizes historical facts, ignores
series disagreements among evolutionary biologists themselves, and
misrepresents Darwin's scientific critics in order to convince the
American people that evolution is absolutely true and indispensable
to our daily lives.

This Viewer's Guide has
been prepared to correct this one-sided presentation. Where Evolution
distorts or ignores the facts, this Guide supplies them. Where Evolution
ignores or misrepresents its critics, this Guide lets them speak for
themselves. Although Evolution promotes the stereotype that all opponents
of Darwin's theory are biblical literalists, this Guide was not written
to defend biblical literalism but to defend honest science. It is
simply based on the premise that the American people deserve to hear
the truth--especially from the television network that they are supporting
with their tax money.

A. The Goals of the
Evolution Series

According to Evolution's
producers, their guiding vision has been to convey "the importance
of evolution" to a general viewing audience. "Evolution
affects almost every aspect of human life," the producers believe.
"From medicine to agriculture to a person's choice of mate,
evolution touches our daily lives in extraordinary ways. Having
a grounding in evolution is key to our understanding of so many
issues around us."

1. To show that
evolution is important to "almost every aspect of human life,"
especially medicine, agriculture, and choice of a mate.

2. To present
"the underlying evidence behind claims of facts and proposed
theories."

3. To report
on "areas where the science is sound."

4. In keeping
with "solid science journalism," to examine "empirically-testable
explanations" while avoiding "the religious realm."

It will be helpful to
keep these in mind while viewing the episodes, and to compare the
contents of each episode with the producers' announced goals.

B. How To Use This
Guide

The best way to use this
Guide is to read the chapter about each episode
before viewing it--though reading the Guide after an episode
will still be useful. For easier reading the chapters are divided
into sections, though the sections do not necessarily correspond
to actual segments within the episodes.

The series consists of
seven episodes. The first is two hours long, while all the others
are one hour long, making a total of eight hours. This Guide includes
a chapter for each episode, providing a detailed description of
its contents--including some verbatim quotations from the narrator
or interviewees--and critical comments on how the episode misleads
the viewer. Each chapter concludes with notes containing additional
information and resources for viewers who want to pursue selected
topics in more depth.

For educators who want
to use the Evolution series as a teaching tool--especially to teach
critical thinking skills--an appendix to this Guide contains several
classroom-ready activities. Because the activities and assignments
are all fairly involved, and range in difficulty from fairly simple
to advanced, the best way to use them is to choose one or two that
seem appropriate for a specific group of students. Alternatively,
different students could be assigned (or allowed to choose) different
activities--though this would require modifying those activities
that involve whole-class participation.

This Viewer's Guide was
prepared using a pre-release version of the seven-part series shown
to journalists during the summer of 2001. It is possible that some
of the material presented here--including specific quotations--may
differ slightly from the series aired on public television.

Notes

.
Quotations from the producers about their goals are taken from
"The Evolution Controversy: Use It Or Lose It"--a document
prepared by Evolution Project/WGBH Boston and distributed to PBS
affiliates on June 15, 2001. The document concludes by suggesting
that "any further questions" should be directed to WGBH.
The web site for WGBH is http://www.wgbh.org/